First Times and Anxiety

How do you understand when anxiety is finally over? I’ve asked myself this question many times. Let me be frank: I have no answer to that. Nevertheless, a few months ago I casually stumbled upon the following quote and I believe I couldn’t have found a better way to describe my feelings: Once the storm is over you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about. — Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore This is exactly what it feels like to me. Fourteen months after everything began, almost a year after I hit my lowest point, I still have no idea whether the storm is really over. But luckily enough, I haven’t been alone in my storm. I’ve had the good fortune to have a therapist by my side, guiding and reassuring me about the changes that were occurring to a still-unconscious self and explaining to me that those changes were proof of my healing process. Yes, changes, because once you are in the middle of your storm, there comes a moment in which it all becomes about changes: letting changes happen, making changes happen, noticing and accepting changes as they occur. As I opened up to changes, first times became more and more frequent. My entire journey down to the lowest circle of my hell and back up to my new life is paved with first tim...
Source: Psych Central - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Anti-anxiety Antidepressants Disorders General Medications Personal Stories Psychotherapy Agoraphobia fainting first times Insomnia Psychopharmaceuticals Social Anxiety Source Type: news